book imps

I think it says a lot about America that even in the 19th century, everything was made new. These are English books, and like many other overseas volumes in the archives, the paper inside the spine is recycled from some sort of newspaper. When shelving at the library, I always enjoy trying to read these papers, but this is the first one I've seen with pictures. Aren't they delightful? It is a shame that the spines are so damaged, but at the same time it gives a really interesting view of something seldom seen or thought about.

the old and the odd

The writing in books, though occasionally irritating, I find to be mostly fascinating. Lately I've acquired a 1913 hardback copy of The Amateur Gentleman by Jeffery Farnol. In nice neat script on a front page is written "From Robert L. Underwood. Class 1914," but the book seems to have been more recently appropriated by a young girl named Myrna, as evidenced by the block letters firmly written onto the Table of Contents. Myrna must have been an odd child, as she has torn out the a few interior pages as well as the one with the publishing information. Oddly enough, this page was also missing from the 1913 copy I borrowed from the library so I could find out what was written on the ripped out pages and had been replaced by a typewritten one, which let me know the book was illustrated by Herman Pfeifer. Pfeifer, it seems, was quite a popular illustrator at the time, and had work in many books and well as Scribner's Magazine and The Ladies' Home Journal. But back to Myrna. In addition to murdering a few pages, she has also left her own illustration on the back of one of Pfeifer's images. Let me show it to you.
Lovely, is it not? I am reminded very strongly of this:
It is a dogu, a small statue from the Final Jomon period (1000-400 BCE) of ancient Japan. Some people believe these "earthenware figures" to be evidence of an alien encounter...perhaps Myrna had a similar experience? More commonly dogu are thought to be fertility figures (tut tut, a young girl shouldn't know about such things), but what I like best about them is the theory that their huge "eyes" are actually goggles. Northern Japan is very snowy and eye coverings with just a slit to see through would have helped with the glare of the sun on the blindingly white landscape. Probably not quite the image Pfeifer had in mind.

"Oh, sir, I grieve to disappoint you."

peering out from the stacks

When it comes to collecting the past, few objects are more interesting to me than books. Of course, I adore that wonderful old musty smell, but there is a lot more to love. Everyone knows that old saying about judging by appearances, but the covers of so many old books are just gorgeous. Or intriguing. Or odd. I have a fair number of vintage and antique books myself, but I have a much larger collection of photos I took of books at my college. I feel very lucky to be around so many windows into the past practically all the time, but I doubt that very many other people there really look at them all that often. For example, I was the first person to read a three-volume history of the French Revolution (I had to cut the pages!) even though it was from the 1840's. Even if I don't have much to say about the book itself, an image is definitely worth sharing.